Prop by the sea
Well, it has taken a while but there was no Courier Mail Bronco headline in the back pages of Monday’s edition. ‘Roo Beauty’ did refer to sacked Bronco legend Kevvy Walter’s looming appointment to the national side, so I guess that is something.
Round 20 began with the game between the Dolphins and the Cowboys. This was a critical game for both sides but the Dolphins, with the Hammer leading from the front, had too many guns for the Cowboys. It was a very disappointing performance by the Cowboys and certainly has the Dolphins well placed for the eight given they have the bye in Round 21. Questions were clearly asked about the coach of the Cowboys after this demoralising loss, especially given they have the worst defence in the competition. Even worse than the last placed Titans.
Friday night had two games. The first had the Sharks up against the Roosters where the Sharks proved to be too strong. The Roosters had their chances but just made way too many mistakes and have now lost 2 on the trot at a critical time of the season. It was a bit of a kickback for the Sharks who stopped their slide out of the 8 with this win. The second game had the Panthers up against the Rabbitohs and, as was to be expected, they were too good even though they rested star players.
Saturday had three games with the first one pitting the table topping Raiders up against the Eels. The Eels put up some fight early but the Raiders were too good. They certainly are September bound but they will have to be better than they displayed in this match. The second Saturday game had the Bulldogs up against the Dragons and it wasn’t a very impressive performance by the Bulldogs. Their star mid-season signing Galvin won the game with a late pass but the Dragons definitely had their opportunities and maybe can feel a bit hard done by. The final Saturday game saw the Storm up against the Sea Eagles and the Sea Eagles got away with the win and most probably deservedly although the penalty on Grant to give Manly a two point lead was very very soft. If you get a chance to see the highlight reels, watch DCE’s tackle on big Nelson which was copybook and most probably won Manly the game.
On Sunday there were two games. The first saw a full house at Leichardt urging the Tigers to get away with a 21-20 win over the Titans. It really was a game that the Titans should have won but they made too many elementary mistakes. The game never reached any great standard but certainly the closeness of the score and the massive home crowd baying for Titans’ blood helped. When Doueihi kicked a 79th minute field goal to win the game the faithful acted like it was 2005! The final match went all the way to the wire as well and the Knights can consider themselves very unlucky not to have won this game. Although the score was 20 to 15 it was 15-14 to the Knights with seconds left on the clock when the Warriors had a field goal attempt charged down and managed to score in the corner to all but end the Knight’s faint semi-final hopes.
Round 21 begins the last quarter of the season with 7 rounds remaining. The first game is on Thursday night where the Roosters take on the Storm. It is critical for the Roosters to win this game, having lost their last two matches and sliding away from what looked like a potential top four finish and now concerns about the eight. They seem to have been disjointed over the last two weeks whilst, at the same time, the Storm would not be happy at losing last week’s game in the manner that they did.
Friday has two games with the first one having the Cowboys at home to the Dragons. You cannot tip either team with any confidence and, given the poor performance of the Cowboys last week, you have to wonder where their next win will come from. Likewise, the Dragons were unlucky last week to lose but don’t give their supporters any real confidence. I think I will stick with the Cowboys at home. The second game has the Broncos up against the Eels and if we believe the hype emerging around the Broncos, this should be a fairly simple walk in the park for them. The Eels have been playing better but are a long way short of a team that is expecting to be finals bound and they welcome the return of Moses.
Saturday features three games, the first of which has the Warriors up against the hapless Titans. The Warriors at home should be just too strong and, given they play the Titans twice in a month, it really does pitch them towards a top four finish. It is Hasler’s 500th game as coach but I think that is all they will have to celebrate! The second game has the Panthers up against the Tigers and again, even though the Panthers have been a little down on form, they will be too strong for the Tigers. The Tigers will find the Panthers a lot tougher opposition than the performance of the Titans last week. The final game has the Rabbits up against the Sharks and it’s impossible to see the Rabbits being able to beat the Sharks, especially given the injury toll they’ve had.
Sunday has two games, the first having the Raiders up against the Knights. I think the Raiders at home will be far too free flowing for the Knights who were better last week but still couldn’t win when they had the chance. Finally, the Bulldogs are up against the Sea Eagles which has most probably the most interest in the round. The Bulldogs were clunky last week but got away with the win and Manly were lucky and got a win against the Storm. Manly desperately need to win this game to consolidate their place in the top 8 whilst the Bulldogs can’t afford to play poorly or there will be questions asked about their recruitment. It should be a great game.
Top Eight (in order)
3 Melbourne 5 Broncos 6 Panthers 7 Manly 8 Cronullaargh 10 Roosters 13 Cowboys 15 Rabbitohs
Fact / Stat for the day – With field goals and missed field goals aplenty in Rd 20, I thought of the great Terry Lamb’s 43-metre field goal at Belmore against the Knights in 1992. Magnificent goal except the score was 12-10 Knights! Lamb missed the Knights sideline conversion a minute earlier to make it 12-10. Of course, in today’s game it would have been a 2 pointer, so he was ahead of his time! Greg Inglis did the same thing in 2016 against St George as the siren went. Gus said to Rabs – “What’s he doing?” Rabs replies, “I don’t know what he is doing!” Souths lost 8-6.
Tipping Stats – 5 out of 8 last week was not the result I was after. The losses late in the game by the Storm and Newcastle really hurt and I dropped 33000 places, staying just inside the top 100!000. No one in my subgroup performed any better so I have a small reason to crow!
Queensland Schoolboys won the final of the ASSRL 18 Years Championships at Coffs Harbour last week in a very good game of Rugby League, defeating NSWCCC 20-10. Our Girls were defeated by NSWCHS in another good game. ASSRL sides were selected and will tour PNG later in the year.
NB – I visited Grafton Races- great crowd and atmosphere at the time-honoured Ramornie Handicap where I deposited a little bit into the satchel! Not happy with that. I backed up in the Cup the next day and made a further contribution!
You gotta love footy!
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